Friday, April 10, 2009

With the holidays upon us, the wife gets a little nostalgic and so she decided to drag out her accordion and play a little “Home Sweet Home” on her squeeze box. She’s a little out of practice but soon got warmed up and was cranking out the tunes. She needs to play it more often but doesn’t always have the time. Music is a good thing and being able to make your own music is an even better thing.

Ugly Drum Smoker

My concentration was focused on the brisket on my new smoker barrel which was recently completed and immediately put into use. The brisket was awesome and will probably become a staple in my diet as a result. It’s really hard to turn down brisket when it’s cooked right! My ugly drum smoker ran for a little over 12 hours on 5 pounds of charcoal and did wonders for the 12 pound brisket I had in it.

My ugly drum smoker kind of reminds me of a “big” hobo stove, the kind made out of empty coffee cans. It also makes me wonder if there isn’t a little hobo in all of the people out there that are into the ugly drum smokers. I also managed to finish off the last of my son-in-law’s Samuel Adams Special Winter Beer. It’s pretty good stuff. I may need to get some of it to keep around my place. Although, I still prefer a good bock most of the time and there is a brewery fairly close to where I live. Keeping a good supply on hand shouldn’t be much of a problem with a brewery being close.

I plan to do a little target practice with my 9mm automatic this morning before I have to go into work. It’s a recent acquisition that I came across and picked up at a fairly inexpensive price that was good enough that I couldn’t turn it down. I’ll cover it in a little more detail later on.

Got some questions for ya RW.. What temp/time did you cook it? Do you dry rub it? Do you smoke then wrap/baste? Would love to see you break it down if you have the time. (don't give away all your secrets!)

From the title, I thought you went to New Braunfels, ha ha! Yessir, nothing like a good brisket! Beer is a necessary and traditional ingredient (for the cook). With a little squeeze box to go along with, now that's nice.

Temp was minimum 250 degrees to 275 degrees maximum for 12 hours -it was a 12 1/2 pound brisket- (rule of thumb for a good brisket is one hour cooking time per pound - so if you don't want to be up all night look for smaller briskets!).

Dry rubbed it with a mixture of 3/4seasoned salt(SeasonAll)and 1/4 lemon pepper seasoning. Used old seasonall container to put my mix in and just sprinkle it on and rub it in.

I use a custom mix seasoned salt but the regular works OK. About every 4 hours just rubbed it down good with a stick of cold butter (don't use margarine!).

Didn't wrap it in foil - that's baking and not smoking. If you do that, might as well cook it in the oven.

I flipped the brisket about once an hour but you could leave it for a couple of hours before flipping it- it seems to cook more evenly if I flipped the brisket about once an hour.

Pulled it off the smoker and let it rest for about 20 or 30 minutes (this allows it cool down a little also) and then sliced it up and chowed down!

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Preppin' Tips - DIY

An expedient oxygen absorber for a 5 gallon storage container can be made by placing a golf ball size piece of steel wool and a tablespoon of salt inside a paper napkin and placing it in the container. The salt will absorb the residual moisture and the steel wool will naturally absorb the oxygen.

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Make Your Own Electrolyte Beverage (Gatorade, Pedialyte, etc.)

To one quart of water add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 8 teaspoons of granulated sugar. Thoroughly mix all ingredients together.

This will replace electrolytes lost by the body due to dehydration caused by diarrhea, vomiting, excessive sweating, etc. A package of Kool-Aid, Crystal Light, etc. may be added to enhance the flavor and color.

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